The Fifth Hero - The Hero of the Wand
by Kuroi-Ryu-San
Summary: I was just reading my LN, then fell asleep. Next thing i know, I'm lying on a pentagram surrounded by cultists, then I was labeled as Hero. Might as well try to be one. Rated T for now.
1. Chapter 1: New World

**AN: This is my first attempt at a shield hero fanfic. I finished both the anime and web novel and as of now, I'm still in the first volume of the LN. **

**I want to try something. I want try if this story can get a tvtrope page. I hope it does.**

**Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Rising of The Shield Hero. **

**{{ Story Start }}**

"Story of The Four Cardinal Heroes? Sounds interesting, although the title's a bit plain"

My name is Yamamoto Yuuki. Age: 20 Gender: Male. A College student aiming to be a Game Developer.

As to where and what am I doing right now, I'm at a bookstore browsing for new light novels to read. Those are very good source of inspiration and reference for my experimental games. I call them experimental but the truth is those are just fan games I made. Fighting, RPG, Visual Novel style and others, I tried it.

My parents are very busy businessmen overseas and usually checks up on me monthly while sending funds for my necessities. I lived with my grandma ever since they made their big break.

And with that hefty sum of cash, I bought this LN and its next few volumes and brought it back to my house..

And so I read about the story of the four heroes.

It's a typical fantasy world with typical prophecy about 'waves of destruction' and the only way to save the world is to summon heroes. In other words, typical isekai plot.

The odd thing in this book is, it summoned four. Generally, isekai tend to summon only one or an entire class of students.

On a side note. Japan is truly the center of fantasy otherworld heroes.

The four heroes owned one weapon each.

The Sword.

The Bow.

The Spear.

The Shield?

Why the shield?. Then again, a certain captain used a shield as a weapon. Anyways,

The four of them went on a journey to train, gather allies to fight the waves. Went on a few misadventures along the way.

This kinda gets boring though as there's no waifu material. There's the princess but she's a lying, manipulative bitch that obsessed with getting the attention of heroes? That and she seems to love pitting them against each other.

The hero of the sword is rather active and powerful and seems to take the lead most of the time. The typical swordsman protag trope.

The hero of the spear valued his comrades. The typical nakama protag trope

The hero of the bow never tolerates injustice. The typical hero of justice character.

The hero of the shield might have the weakest attacking power, but he always protected his comrades. The classic tanky RPG character.

Interestingly, this story seems to add RPG elements to it, from classes to crafting methods to enhancement methods, all sorts of things found in typical RPG games.. Each character also fit in the common RPG roles.

The high HP, high , high HP regen Tank for the Shield hero.

The high HP, high ATK, user friendly Warrior for the Sword hero.

The high ATK, high DEX, but squishy Rogue/Hunter/Assassin for the Bow hero

The high , high AGI but average HP and low Assassin/Rogue like Spear hero.

And so, after finishing this all of it and finding out it's still not finished, I went to sleep.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

"Ohhh!"

I heard the sounds of amazement from people. Something that prompted me to suddenly sit up. I'm in my room and no one else is supposed to be here but me …. Except I'm no longer in my room and I'm sitting on one corner of what looks like a glowing pentagram alongside four other people. Each of us are either sitting (which is my and the shield guy's case) or standing ( as is the case with the kids with the sword and bow and the guy with the spear. )

Did I mention that we're surrounded by what seems to be cultists?

Just what the fuck is going on!?

"What's going on?" One of us said.

That's what I want to know too!.

I just slept in my room and when I woke up I'm sitting in some sort of magic circle holding a scepter of sorts while surrounded by lots of cultists!

Wait. Scepter?

I finally noticed what I am holding.

It's a white scepter that's about two feet long and about an inch thick that looks like that guy's spear, only remove the spike at the pommel and the blade and replace it with a purple jewel.

Where did this come from?

"Where are we?" The sword kid asked.

"Oh heroes, Please save our world!"

Heroes? Save the world?

What the fuck?

"What!?" The other four shouted in unison.

My thoughts exactly! Plus the fuck!

"What is that supposed to mean?" The bow kid asked.

Still, this place, this scenario, the words of these cultists, all of this looks familiar to me. Like I've saw, heard all of these before.

Wait a second. Sword. Spear. Bow. Shield.

It can't be…

"There are many complications in this situation, but to offer a simple answer to your question, we have just completed an ancient ceremony and summoned you five heroes."

I've been isekai'ed.

I'm fucking isekai'ed

I'm isekaied in that fucking light novel.

But…. There wasn't anything about a scepter in there.

An Alternate Universe of The Story of The Four Cardinal Heroes perhaps?

"Summoned?" The spear guy asked.

"Our world is on the brink of destruction. Heroes, we beg of you, please lend us your strength" The cultists said, bowing very deeply to us.

I'm seriously creeped out. I don't like these cultists bowing to us.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to-" The shield guy said but he was rudely interrupted by others.

"I don't think so"

"Yeah, me neither"

"We can go back to our world right? We'll talk about your problems after that."

They're certainly calm about this. I've grasped the situation just now but these guys looks like they know what they're doing, to make statements like that.

"Are you okay?" The shield guy asked me.

How nice of him. Worrying about others in this situation.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The situation just shocked me" I replied. The shield bro gave me an understanding look.

Being isekaied tend to shock people you know.

"They seem happy to be here." The shield bro commented.

I nodded. " This is dream come true for any fantasy fan. You get to adventure, kill the dragon and save the princess and all that fantasy hero stuff." I replied. Shield bro nodded in agreement.

Oops, I might have missed parts of the conversation. Gotta listen to these people bargain first. I'll think about the entire situation later. I have to focus on what's going on right now.

"Perhaps the did not have the decency to think about how we would feel after being summoned." The sword kid said, pointing his sword at the cultists.

How aggressive…..

"And besides, there's no guarantee you'll send us back to our worlds after we save you and bring peace to this world." The bow kid said.

Bow kid has a point. Good. They're taking this seriously.

"How do you plan to convince us? Depending on your answer, we might end up becoming your enemy." The spear guy said.

Going to threats already? I guess that's fine too, just so these cultists know we're serious in this. That and doing what they're asking without a reward doesn't go well with me.

It's clear that they're tying to figure out their standing and demand guaranteed compensation for their efforts, something I can somewhat respect. You gotta make sure the contract is clear and all that.

Another thing is the expressions of these cultists. Like they're desperate for our help or something, which eases parts of my worries. Slave contracts exists in the light novel and I'm worried about that. Seeing these people being defiant without getting any punishment of sorts relieved me since that means we're not bound by a slave contract.

Though now that I think about it, they've been somewhat subservient since the beginning so I might have worried for nothing.

"Yes, well, we would very much like you to speak with the king. He will discuss future compensation with you in the throne room. Please follow us." The lead cultist replied.

The cultists opened the huge door behind them and gestured for us to follow.

"Whatever"

"I seems worth discussing."

"Well, my opinion won't change no matter who's involved."

These guys are still aggressive huh.

We followed the cultists towards a very medieval hallway. Looking at the scenery outside, its very RPG like. Like how many games design a city.

"We're really in another world huh" Shield bro said with awe.

"Yeah" "Right" The spear guy and I replied.

"The wind fresh and the scenery is nice too, like those pictures you see in those travel brochures." Said the shield bro, which I replied with an absent minded "Yeah"

"Have you ever left japan before?" The bow kid asked with amusement in his tone.

"Not really." Shield bro answered.

"In my case, just on business trips with my parents so I'm usually stuck on the hotel, though those are back when I was a middle school student." I replied.

"Judging by the winds coming in, I think it's similar to the blows on the beach." The sword kid said. Shield bro just laughed awkwardly at his words.

"Forgive me for having so little knowledge."

I just noticed it now, but we're summoned in our casual clothes. I'm really glad I slept in my casual wear. It would be embarrassing to be summoned in a plain T-shirt and boxers.

And so, we walked towards the throne room in silence.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

"So these kids are the Legendary Holy heroes huh." An old man in kingly garb said from his throne. I don't like the way he talks to us.

"I am the king of Melcromarc, Aultrcray Melcromark XXXII. Introduce yourselves, heroes."

"My name's Amaki Ren. 16 years old, and high school student."

The sword kid, Amaki Ren is definitely a handsome guy, what's more, if you put him in women's clothes, he'll definitely pass as a girl. He' kinda short. About 5'2" I think. He seems aloof, his hair is black and cut short and he's pale, something that's common with otaku or gamers. Overall, he gave off a kirito vibe. The cool, aloof swordsman vibe.

"I guess I'm next. My name's Kitamura Motoyasu. I'm 21 and a college student."

The spear guy, Kitamura Motoyasu, came off as a light hearted individual. He's handsome too. He's about 5'6" in height and his blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail. I don't know why but for some reason, I get the impression that he's like a womanizer kind of guy. Well, let's hope he won't attract yanderes with his charms. He'll end up dead.

"Ok, I'll go next. Kawasumi Itsuki, 17 years old and a high school student."

The bow kid, Kawasumi Itsuki, gives of the impression of a gentleman musician. Somehow stylish, somehow resolved, yet still giving off a childish vibe. He's the shortest of us at 5'1" his light brown, almost yellowish hair is wavy. He seems like a gentle kid.

"I'll go next. Iwatani Naofumi, 20 years old and a college student"

The Shield bro, Iwatani Naofumi, is about the same height as Motoyasu, with spiky black hair and green eyes. His somewhat pale complexion led me to believe that he too, is either an otaku or a gamer. That or it's his natural complexion. The guy's nice too and a bit carefree.

"…. I guess I should introduce myself. Yamamoto Yuuki. Age: 20, a college student."

I can only describe myself as average. Average in build and 5'6" in height. My hair is naturally spiky and any efforts to tame it is useless. My eyes are also blue. It turns out, my grandpa is an American so I probably inherited it from him. I also have pale skin due to lack of outside activity. A side effect of being a gamer _and_ an otaku _and_ newbie game developer.

"So Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Yuuki, correct?"

"Your grace, you're forgetting me!" Iwatani-san interjected.

"Ah, yes, pardon me Mr. Naofumi."he doesn't look sincere as he said that. I guess the authority of the king lets him be like that.

By the way, what's up with the weird gaze of these nobles (I guess)? Its like they're in the presence of something unpleasant.

"Now then, I shall begin with the explanation. This country, this whole world is on the brink of destruction."

The king began with a regal tone. Still while the situation matches up with the Light Novel, there's some difference. Namely, this scepter I hold. Should I take it as this meaning I should ignore the sequence of the novel? I only read up to 5 volumes…..

Moving on, to summarize what the king said, apparently, there was a prophesy about the end of the world. The waves, described as an anomaly in the sky that spawns armies of monsters, will invade the world over and over again. Unless repelled, the world would be doomed.

The prophesy itself is from ancient times, but the time it spoke of is apparently now. There was also a large hourglass that signals the start of a wave. Apparently, its sand began falling a month ago and according to legends, the waves would come in monthly intervals.

Also, apparently, the first wave already happened a month ago and this country's adventurers and soldiers successfully repelled the wave, but took heavy casualties and worse, the waves will only grow stronger. Hence the decision to summon heroes.

"We underestimated the waves and now, we know we're left with no choice but to summon you heroes." The king said, finishing his explanation.

They must have been skeptical about the old prophecy, back when the hourglass started functioning, only to be proven wrong. They now know how bad the situation is. And so, they summoned us a bit too late.

On a side note, This part still follow the plotline of the story of the four cardinal heroes.

It's something I noticed halfway the explanation but even though we're from another world, we can understand their words and they can understand ours. It's probably either they speak the same language as us or these legendary weapons translate both ways for us.

"I understand. But don't tell me we won't get anything in return after being brought here." The sword kid aggressively said. I looked at him long and hard.

This kid… do you really want to die? That's the king you're talking to you know? Why are you trying to piss off the king of this country, inside his own castle too. One order is all it takes for the knights to swarm you, you know?

"Of course not. We will give due rewards when the waves are eradicated." The king's said.

All heroes, me excluded suddenly pumped their fists in celebration. Negotiations complete I guess?

"Naturally" The king continued. "I've made arrangements to support you financially, and also to provide you with whatever you may require, as thanks for your efforts in our behalf."

"I'll go. As long as you keep your promise, it's fine by me."

"Don't think you bought us off. As long as you don't become my enemies, I'll help you out though."

"Agreed."

"Me too."

"I'm fine with those terms."

Motoyasu-san, Ren, Itsuki, Naofumi-san and I respectively said.

Still, does the first three have to speak that way to the king? We're in his turf you know? Or did the title of hero already got into their heads?

"Now then, Heroes. Please confirm your status and give yourselves an objective evaluation" The king ordered.

Status? What status?

"Excuse me, but how are we supposed to evaluate ourselves?" Naofumi-san asked.

Ren suddenly sighed, like he was bothered by being forced to do something he would rather not.

"You mean to say you all haven't figured it out yet? Didn't you realize it the moment you arrived here?"

"Just say it already." I said. Just get to the point you idiot. He just glanced at me and continued.

"Fine. Do you see any floating icons in your peripheral vision?"

Now that he mentioned it, I do.

"If you saw those, focus your mind into that icon"

I followed the instructions and was rewarded with a soft 'ping', like a menu on a smartphone app or computer, and the icon suddenly expanded.

**{{[][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][][]}}**

**Name: Yamamoto Yuuki**

**Age:20**

**Class: Wand Hero [Lv. 1]**

**HP: 100**

**MP:130**

**SP: 140**

**Exp: 0%**

**{{[][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][][]}}**

**Equipment: **

**Short Scepter (Legendary Weapon)**

**Otherworld clothes.**

**{{[][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][][]}}**

**STATS**

**ATK: 11**

**MATK: 28**

**DEF: 9**

**MDEF: 17**

**STR: 8**

**AGI: 12**

**{{[][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][][]}}**

**AFFINITY**

**Fire: 5**

**Water: 5**

**Earth:. 5**

**Wind:. 5**

**Lightning: 5**

**Ice:. 5**

**Light:. 5**

**Dark:. 5**

**{{[][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][][]}}**

**SKILLS**

**[ Blessing of the Legendary Wand ] **

**[Lv.1]**

**{ Passive }**

**Effect: 1.) Casting spells no longer require the chant. ( Optional ) **

**Effect 2.) All elemental affinity + 5**

**None**

**{{[][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][][]}}**

**MAGIC**

**None**

**{{[][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][][]}}**

"Level 1? I'm worried." Itsuki said.

"Yeah. We can't fight the waves at this level." Motoyasu agreed.

As expected. We're level 1. Just like the heroes from the light novel.

"What you're probably seeing is the Status magic, a magic exclusive to the heroes." The king spoke, seeing that we opened the status table.

"So, what are we supposed to do now?" Ren asked.

Level grind. Obviously.

"You guys are going to travel and take on adventures in order to grow stronger and strengthen the legendary weapons." The king answered.

"Strengthen? These legendary weapons aren't strong from the get-go?" Itsuki asked.

"That is correct. The summoned heroes must raise their legendary weapons by themselves. That is how they will get strong according to legends." The king answered.

"We aren't strong from the beginning huh. And to top it off, I don't even have a weapon." Naofumi-san complained.

"Why not try using another weapon instead? At least until you can use that properly." Motoyasu-san suggested.

"You'll unlock abilities in due time. For now, the most important thing is to master our skills" Ren said.

"That and level up. We can't fight the waves at this level." Itsuki added.

"So Level up, Get skills, Get proper equipment. I doubt our clothes can protect us from monsters." I said, getting the others to nod in agreement.

"So should we go together and level grind? Naofumi-san asked.

"Please wait, Heroes-sama" The noble who seems to be the king's aide suddenly spoke. "You five must form different groups to go on an adventure."

"Why?" Itsuki asked.

"According to the legends, the legendary weapons will interfere with each other should you form a party. Both your weapons and yourselves can only grow stronger when you're apart from one another." The king answered.

This wasn't in the light novel. The four heroes are in one party in the light novel. This is the second difference now.

"We can't level up if we're in the same party huh. That's a shame." I muttered. Suddenly, a notice appeared in my vision.

**{{ Attention! }}**

**[ The Legendary Weapons and their owners will experience adverse effects if they're in the same party. ]**

**{{ Caution! }}**

**[ It is preferable if the Legendary weapons and their owners work separately. ]**

This world really feels like a game. VRMMO games must be like this in the future, fusing the game world and reality. Still, this world is a bit too game like.

"So we'll have to find our own party members huh." I mused.

"There is no need for that. We will find and prepare party members for you. In for now, you should rest and prepare for a trip tomorrow." The king said.

That's one problem off the list, I guess.

One of the ladies approached us. Is she an aide of the king or a noble?

"This way please, we have rooms prepared for you."

I guess she's another aide.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

The lady led us to our rooms but Itsuki wants to talk so we ended up having a meeting in his room. The servants were quick to notice this and set up some chairs, a small table, dinner and drinks for us.

"They really treat is well for being heroes huh." Motoyasu began as the servants left. " The maids are pretty cute too" did I mention those servants are dressed in maid attires?

"The food tastes strange but it's fine too." Itsuki said.

"The drinks are nice too." I said, taking a sip of the wine.

"This world really looks like a game." Naofumi-san said. It seems he's still messing around with the status menu.

"I agree. This world looks like a VR game." I added.

"Well, I think it may actually be a game. _Emerald Online_ to be precise." Motoyasu-san said.

Huh! A game you say? But I never heard of that game before….

"I'm a pretty hardcore otaku, but I never heard of that game. I played games like _Odin Online_ and _Fantasy Moon Online_, both are pretty famous." Naofumi-san replied.

"Never heard of those."

"I never heard of those games before." Itsuki began. "I think it's a 3D console game. The title is _Dimension Wave._"

"You three are wrong. This is more like the VRMMO game, _Brave Star Online_" Ren countered.

"I'm pretty sure the VR tech is still in the early stages. There's no VR games as of now." I dryly said, drawing nods of agreements from Itsuki, Motoyasu-san and Naofumi-san. "Still, I'm sure this was a game themed light novel, _The Story of The Five Cardinal Heroes._" I said. I replaced the 'four' with 'five' because I don't want unnecessary questions.

"What a lame title" Mototasu-san commented and I shrugged in response. I'm not the one who made that title you know? " Online games are either in console or PC you know? VR games aren't made yet, as Yuuki said." He said to Ren who seemed confused.

Still, all these famous titles and we're in disagreement. What's up with that?

"PC? Console? What kind of antique games are you talking about? All online games are VRMMO now." Ren insisted.

Huh? ALL games in VR?

"Cut the sci-fi crap. The VR tech isn't ready for stuff like VRMMO yet." Motoyasu-san countered.

"Huh!?" Ren nearly shouted in surprise.

Still, if he's familiar with VR, that explains how he figured out the status magic.

"We're all disagreeing about this. Are we even from the same world?" I jokingly asked.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

All of us fell silent as we all realized something…

"Ok. How about we try to answer some common sense questions?" Naofumi-san suggested after a few moments of silence.

"Sure"

"Yeah"

"Okay"

"Go ahead"

Ren, Motoyasu-san, Itsuki and I respectively answered.

"Name the current president of japan." He asked.

The result: we have different answers.

"Who's the commander of the army!?"

"What's the title of the #1 game in the internet!?"

"Who won the war against the west!?"

"What is the name of the prime minister!?"

"What is the current year!?'

And so, we tried. Again and again we asked each other questions from different topics. And yet, we always say different things.

We took a few moments of silence to properly digest this shocking info.

Itsuki spoke, breaking the silence. "It seems we came from different version of japan"

"I was just joking when I said that. . . ." I muttered.

"Nothing's the same huh. No matter what we ask." Ren mused.

I'm shocked about that too.

"I would've never imagined there would be multiple versions of japan." Naofumi-san said as he plopped on the couch.

"Yeah. I just assumed we're from different regions, not from different worlds." Motoyasu-san said.

At least, there's something common in all of us.

We're all otaku.

"Hey, I'm curious, what are you guys doing before you were summoned?" I asked. It's not really important right now, I just wanted to know if we're summoned in a similar manner.

"What about you?" Itsuki asked.

"I was reading _The Story of The Five Cardinal Heroes_ on my bed and fell asleep. When I woke up, I was here." I answered.

"Same here, I was on the library, reading _The Records of The Five Holy Weapons_ and fell asleep. Next thing I know, I was here." Naofumi-san said.

The title of the book he read seems similar to mine with some differences. Mine is four his is five. Mine is about the heroes themselves. His, from what I can tell from the title, is about the weapons _and_ their respective heroes.

If a weapon has a legend, then there has to be a wielder.

I was about to think about it more but…..

Yeah. Parallel Worlds.

…. You three, what's up with the cold looks?

"….I tried to save a friend from a murderer. I was stabbed." Ren explained in a cold tone.

Ouch. ,"Sorry for asking."

"….I was on my way back to school. I was crossing the road but a truck came screaming around at full speed…" Itsuki left off, his tone as cold as Ren's.

Double ouch. "I'm really sorry for asking."

This kid is another victim of Truck-kun.

"I was stabbed to death by my girlfriend…" Motoyasu-san said his tone also cold as ice.

Still….

"Let me guess, you cheated on her." It's not a question, but a statement. And judging by that sudden flinch from him, I totally nailed it.

I want to say sorry, but he definitely deserved it.

Girlfriends don't stab their boyfriends to death for no reason.

Just how angry she was to stab you to death?

Wait.

Perhaps this guy….

"…..How many?" I asked. He turned away, it's clear he understood what I'm talking about, and spoke one word.

"Many."

Yup. This guy's a womanizer. Totally deserved it.

"Ahem. So any thoughts about your Legendary weapon?" I began, ending the cold stares. "Mine's a Scepter and I'm classified as the Wand Hero… despite this thing being a scepter, so that should mean I'm the mage. That also means Magic Attack is my highest stat and like the common RPG theme, my health is somewhat low. Just 100."

That seems to successfully end the depressing topic earlier.

Itsuki followed my lead and spoke. "I'm classified as the Bow Hero and mine is obviously a Bow. In RPG terms, that should mean I'm the hunter or perhaps, rogue. As an archer, my highest stat is Physical Attack and my health… I think it's average at 130. I think I'm geared to do heavy damage on critical hits"

Ren followed next. "I have the sword and I'm classified as the Sword Hero. Most likely, I'm the warrior in RPG roles. As a swordsman, my highest stat is Physical attack and my health is 130. Just average I think. My stats are geared towards dealing constant damage."

Motoyasu-san followed next. "Me, I have this spear and my class is Spear Hero. I guess in RPG roles, I'll be the assassin, stat wise. My Physical Attack and Speed are pretty high but my health is average, I guess, at 120. My stat setup can fall on different roles but I think this will do wonders on pursuit."

Naofumi-san spoke last. "Mine's a shield and I'm classed as the Shield Hero. My role, game wise, can only be tank. Physical and Magical Defense are my highest stat and my health is 150. There's just one problem. My attack is shit."

"How shitty?" I asked.

"1. My Physical attack is 1." I winced. It might as well be zero. If this world operates like a game, the defense stat will surely block that shitty attack power.

"As expected of the shielder class, I guess." Motoyasu-san said. "In _Emerald Online, _that class has amazing defense and health, the offensive power is hideously low. So low you might as well be a walking punching bag. The class itself was even announced to be removed. That should tell you how bad it is."

"That's also the case in _Brave Star Online_, although there are some players who make alternate accounts that uses that class in raid events. The shielder may be a hard to use class but with a proper party, they do make for an excellent tank. At high levels, they get so hard to kill that the recommended way of dealing with them is to stack poison on them over and over again and even then, you have to make sure to offset their natural health regeneration as they tend to heal pretty fast." Ren commented.

"The shielder class was removed in _Dimension_ _Wave_, so I know nothing._._" Isuki spoke.

"I don't know of any games that has classes that could only use shields." I also commented.

Well, there's the shielder class of Grand order but the sheer difference in size of the shields (Kohai's a huge tower shield while Shieldbro's quite small) made it meaningless.

"Anyways, all of you seemed familiar with this world to a certain extent." Naofimi-san said.

"You should be too, aren't you reading a book about this world before you were summoned?" I asked. Naofumi-san just laughed awkwardly.

"I just skimmed the book"

"You got unlucky in that regard huh." Well, he never knew he would be summoned in a fictional world after reading that book. And I really should go to my room now. It's pretty late. "I'll go back to my room and sleep. You should do the same. We'll be level grinding tomorrow."

"Yeah."

"Sure."

"Well, this is my room…"

"Okay."

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

Lying on the king sized bed of my room, I let my thoughts drift to these absurd events.

I was just reading a novel. I fell asleep. Boom!. I'm in a RPG fantasy world.

They called me, us, Heroes.

I have this so called Legendary Holy Weapon, The Legendary Wand…. That is a Scepter.

And tomorrow we're going on an 'adventure'

And strangely enough, aside from shock and surprise, I feel nothing else. I know I should be nervous or something, being thrust into this fictional world with nothing else but my incomplete and faulty knowledge of this world but I totally feel nothing. Like this was just natural.

And I have my family back on my world too.

And can we even go back to our world?

These waves of calamity, how long will it last?

So many questions, yet no answers.

For now, I should focus on the things in front of me.

I'll survive these waves first. I'll find my way back after.

That I can promise.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

**{{ End }}**

**AN: This felt easier to write than my other story, HSDxD: My New Journey. That might be because unlike New Journey, where I have to make everything from scratch, this one has to start like canon. Only with one major difference. **

**The fifth holy weapon. **

**After I watched shield hero, I was like: ok so Sword = warrior, Bow = Archer, Spear = ?, Shield = Tank. **

**Where's the mage!?**

**And so, this fic was born. **

**As for the pairing, no plans for that yet. **

**For now, I'll read the light novel. I'm done with the anime and the web novel so I'll finish the LN first before I write another chapter. **

**Tell me what you guys think. **

**10/18/19 Edit: Added STR and replaced SPD with AGI**

**Later~**


	2. Chapter 2: Preparations

**AN: I'm in volume 2 of light novel right now. **

**Now, people are telling me there's already a cane/staff/wand hero. I know that already. I finished the WN so I'm familiar with the vessel weapons and their respective owners. That's exactly why I'm reading the LN right now, so I can adapt this story to the changes in LN. **

**And besides, what I'm going for is a **_**Cardinal Hero**_** not **_**Vassal Hero. **_

**I'm still thinking about what to do about a certain cane hero's weapon. For those who already finished the LN/WN, they already know who's this guy. **

**Now, about the Stat sheet on chapter 1, I simply copied the stat sheet from the amine, (the atk, , attributes, etc.) way back in ep1 when itsuki opened his stat sheet. I mistook agility for speed though. For the values I chose what seems to fit with the mage build. **

**Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO.**

**{{ Story Start }}**

It's morning.

We woke up early, ate breakfast and made our preparations as we wait for the king's summons.

Today, we're meeting our party members and go on an 'adventure' so to speak.

I can practically feel the other heroes' excitement. Ren may deny it, but even he is exited to meet our party members. Why else would he wake up earlier than anyone else?

I don't feel excited about it though.

I'm not the kind of person that feels excitement when meeting new people.

What I do feel excited about is the journey itself. This is a chance to see, not to imagine, but actually see the fictional world not as a picture or animation but the real thing.

I went back to my room after the meal as I want to read the help menu in relative peace.

While waiting for the summons, I'm reading everything in the help menu to pass the time. I should've done this last night, but I fell asleep. Few things from the help menu stood out for me.

First, there's the interference between the Legendary Weapons. It turns out, excluding the waves, us leveling up in the same area would reduce our exp. gain to 0. Us being in the same party also results in 0 exp. Gain, no exceptions.

So this was what the 'adverse effects' meant in the warning. This was not in the novel. The heroes are in the same party in the novel.

Second is the Legendary Weapon functions. Apparently, these things come with built-in hammer space inventory that I can use to store my stuff. Also, obtaining mundane skills like **[Dismantling] **or **[Cooking]** allows the weapon itself to use those skills. Also, letting the weapon absorb recipes allows the weapon to craft the corresponding item. Another thing is the 'Absorb' function, something I already knew from the novel. You basically feed all kinds of stuff to the jewel of the Legendary Weapon and unlock new forms and skills.

Third is the enhancement methods. Something I already took note back when I was reading the novel. Proficiency, Spirit Enchanting, Status Enhancement and Mastery. The enhancement methods of the four heroes.

Proficiency is about gaining points through frequent use, then after maxing it, you can drain it to gain skill energy, which could be used to upgrade the rarity of the weapon.

Enchanting is about using soul fragments of monsters to get certain buffs or effects for your weapon. This function is similar to Grand Chase's Monster Cards, which you would equip to a weapon for a buff or a stat raise.

Status Enhancement is a fairly common function in games. Here, it is about the classic 'Use this certain item to upgrade this' function.

Mastery is simple enough. Use the weapon frequently and you'll be able to use the weapon's equip bonus and its skill even when not equipped.

I took an interest in these functions, mainly the proficiency, and took note of these for reference in my later games.

Looking at the HUD clock, I noticed it's about 10 which means I was checking the entire help menu for about a hour and half. We should be called anytime now.

And soon enough, the knights fetched us and led us to the throne room.

"You may enter now, heroes." The king announced from his throne.

The huge doors opened to reveal adventurers, 15 in total, fully prepared for an adventure.

Knights, mages, archers and what I can only describe as a thief.

The king certainly works fast. We just arrived and yet, he already found these people.

"As promised, Here are all the adventurers we selected to go with you on your adventures." The king began. "These people here are the best adventurers of Melcromarc so rest assured, they are qualified enough to join your party."

I see.

So these adventurers are the best in Melcromarc huh.

Neat.

They're probably trying to quickly raise our levels, so we can properly fight the waves.

There are 12 adventures here and five of us. So two of us is getting three members and the rest will get two each huh.

"Now then, Adventurers! Choose the Legendary hero with whom you will travel with!"

Wait!

They are the ones to pick!?

Judging by the other's reactions, I'm not the only one shocked by this revelation.

The five of us lined up and the adventurers shuffled around us, forming small groups.

Ren has five people with him.

Itsuki has three people with him.

Motoyasu-san has four with him.

I have none with me.

Naofumi san also has none.

"Huh!" Naofumi-san exclaimed. "Ren has five, Itsuki has three and Motoyasu has four! Wait a minute. Your majesty!"

The problem was clear to everyone.

"I did not anticipate this." The king muttered.

"We can't do anything if nobody wants to join you." The minister sighed.

The cultist on the king's right whispered something to him.

"So there are rumors, I see"

"What is it?" Motoyasu-san asked. His expression shows he's confused.

Personally, I think he's afraid his cheerleading squad (his party) will get reduced because no one went to Naofumi-san.

"Among the heroes, The shield hero does not know very much about our world and while the wand hero is indeed familiar, is still considered lacking in knowledge. Those are what the rumors said." Answered the king.

"What!" Naofumi-san exclaimed out of pure shock.

I simply raised an eyebrow. It's true that I'm not completely familiar with this world, considering I didn't finish the novel, but this brings something to my notice.

That rumor is most likely something from our discussion last night.

The rumors means _someone was listening_.

"The old legends say that the Five Holy Heroes will have an understanding of our land. People are doubting your ability to fulfill your role as a hero." The king explained.

I can see that happening.

The shield is not exactly ideal for killing monsters. I can't blame the people for doubting him, I myself have doubts, but the rumor just adds to it. I don't understand how That applies to me. I'm supposed to be a mage. I can solo which means I won't have to share exp. I'll have to be ultra careful but it is manageable.

But my main concern is, the information is already known throughout the castle, maybe even out of it.

What I'm really concerned about is the fact that someone is listening.

"So someone was listening." Motoyasu-san said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Yeah. My thoughts exactly.

The king is keeping an eye on us.

"Ren, you can't even use five people! Share some with me!" At Naofumi-san's words, the adventurers moved closer to ren. A clear sign they don't want to be with Naofumi-san.

Ren scratched his head, looking perplexed, then spoke. "I'm more of a loner myself, so if they can't keep up, I'm leaving them behind."

It was quite the blunt, arrogant and rude thing to say, but none of the people with him seems affected with his words. They even stuck closer to him!

"Motoyasu! Don't you think It's cruel?!"

"Well, I don't know what to say…" Motoyasu-san awkwardly scratched his head.

This guy. ….

I think he's trying to make a harem. His party is all women and with his hero title, it might not be impossible.

It seems he never learned his lesson.

He'll end up being stabbed again.

If I was in his position, I would be a little wary of women.

"I don't think there is a problem in dividing groups, but doing it in a forceful manner might end up in a worse result." Itsuki spoke.

True. Forcing people with those they don't want to work with might result in them quitting.

"Yuuki! What about you? Are you fine with this." I was suddenly put in the spotlight.

"I honestly don't mind." I simply replied, causing everyone, even the king, to be surprised. The four stared at me as if I am stupid.

"You… you're one of those hardcore players aren't you?" Motoyasu-san asked. I shrugged in reply, causing him to gape. I'm an aspiring programmer. I'm also a gamer. How do you think I test the games I made?

Naofumi-san slumped in defeat. "Does this mean I'll have to do it alone?" I can't help but pity him now. Unlike me, he can't manage to farm alone, well, he can but not effectively, which means he can't level up as fast. That itself is a big problem considering the waves are just going to get stronger. Can he keep up with it?

"I will go with the shield hero"

Huh?

Someone from Motoyasu-san's party suddenly said. It's the red haired, green eyed adventurer. Well, good for Naofumi-san. now he has someone who can attack for him. The sword to his shield so to speak.

Too bad for Motoyasu-san though. One less harem member for him. At least the chance of being stabbed to death by angry women was reduced. Or maybe not. The guy seems like the type to flirt with beautiful women regardless of present company.

"Are you sure?" The king asked.

"Yes, your majesty." Was the immediate reply of the girl.

This world really is in medieval times. I should've watched game of thrones or just anything in the setting of the era of kings.

"The Wand hero has decided to go out on a journey alone. Are there any others among you that would throw your lot in with the Shield Hero?" The king asked.

I don't like the way he phrased it. It was as if he's asking if anyone wants to go with this trash. Something along those lines. There was also the mistake yesterday.

What's up with the hidden animosity?

Was it because the shield hero doesn't have any offensive power?

"I see." The king sighed. There's no one else who want to join Naofumi-san. "I suppose there's no other way around it. The Shield Hero will have to recruit others himself. Attendants."

The attendants walked towards us at the king's orders and gave us a small sack. Something normally used for coins in this era.

It was slightly heavy and a slight shake told me what's inside. Coins as expected.

"Each month, we will supply all of you with necessary funds for your journey. However, under normal circumstances, we will give all heroes the equal amount. But with the Shield and Wand Heroes' situation, we will compensate for Their recruitment funds."

"Y-yes sir!" Naofumi-san answered. I guess all this formality is starting to get to him.

"I have set aside 800 silver coins for the Shield and Wand Heroes and 600 silver coins for the other heroes. Please use it well and begin your journey."

"Yes sir!" We answered in unison.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

'_I was given a bonus despite my decision to go solo. That was nice.' _Yuuki thought while checking the contents of the bag. There's 2 gold coins and a lot of silver coins. '_Going by RPG logic, 1 gold coin should be equal to 100 silver coins. They didn't bother adding another 200 Silver coins. They just place 2 gold coins instead.' _He opened the inventory and placed the bag inside.

Taking a look at everyone, all of them are chatting it up with their party. Everyone except for Ren, that is. '_That guy is emo, or maybe trying to be emo? Whatever the case is, his party followed him closely._'

'_I'll have to find my own party members later but for now, level grinding and equipment buying comes first.' _

Upon closer observation, Yuuki noticed something odd about the Sword, the Bow and the Spear heroes' movements. '_They seem too familiar with this place despite just arriving yesterday.'_ Yuuki thought before remembering their conversation last night. _'Oh, right, this world is the same as the games they played, so they should be very familiar with this place. Sooner or later, they'll surely end up buying equipment, which solves one of my problems. I wanted to buy some equipment but I don't know where to find them. Following them should solve this.'_

The rest of the walk was spent in silence for Yuuki…. And the anti-social Sword hero. Eventually, they finally left the castle. Yuuki took a moment to check out the castle's surroundings. '_Damn. Sometimes words simply are not enough. Everything is as the Novel described and more.' _

'_The gates are fucking huge.' _Was all Yuuki could think upon seeing the castle gates, which are being slowly opened. _'Then again, this is a castle, so I should've expected this.'_

Upon noticing the adventurers walking ahead of the heroes, Yuuki was reminded once more of his need of proper equipment. _'I guess I'll have to look for proper equipment soon. I doubt these clothes will protect me from monsters.'_

"Hey! Naofumi!" The loud voice of spear hero brought Yuuki's attention out of his future plans.

"Protect her properly okay!" Yuuki can only stare at the spear hero dumbly, all the while thinking: _'This guy will get stabbed again soon, I guess.' _Death by stabbing from women should end up with the victim being afraid of women, maybe even developing a phobia. But the spear hero is the opposite, already shows signs of harem seeker tendencies, seemingly not learning from his first death.

"I wish you luck on finding party members. Same to you, Yuuki-san" Itsuki politely said, to which Yuuki replied with a soft 'Thanks'.

"We'll see each other again when the time comes." Ren said in a soft yet cool tone.

'_This guy… to say cliché things so casually... Well, I guess I have to say something too. Although not as cliché' _

"Since Itsuki already wished you luck…. Happy hunting, I guess. Make sure to buy battle worthy clothes and some potions ok?" With those words, Yuuki left the slightly confused shield hero behind. He also heard someone say something suspiciously like 'what do you mean happy hunting? I can't fight on my own!' from somewhere, which Yuuki ignored as he walked away.

'_Ok. Now, back to silently following the other three.' _Yuuki thought, putting his plan into place.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

One might be curious enough to ask a very simple question. Why is he stalking them like this? He could simply just ask to join them right?

There are two answers to this question.

One: Yuuki assumed these three are gamers.

Gamers, by nature, are naturally competitive.

What this means for the other trio is they're treating this world as a game due to the simple fact that this world is similar to the games they play. They _could_ be more concerned about upstaging their fellow heroes, which _could_ result in them telling lies about this world's game mechanics so that only they could get stronger. Of course, all of this is just a possibility, though and they could end up doing the opposite, helping their fellow heroes and sharing info with them.

Two: Yuuki simply never thought to ask. Period.

Yes. It is idiotic.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

'_They really are familiar with this place.'_

The stalking continued until it led Yuuki to a church like building. It has the symbol of the Sword, Spear and Bow, but not the Wand and the Shield._ 'That's worrying in itself as this means the church views the Sword, Bow, and Spear as something holy but what about the Shield and the Wand? I really do hope it's not something like the embodiment of all evil or anything close to it.'_

He watched the trio go into the building while all of their party members waited outside._ 'At this point, there's no point in hiding as their party members would end up seeing me anyways.'_ At this conclusion, Yuuki stopped stalking the trio and entered the church.

"Yuuki?" Motoyasu-san asked, surprised. Ren and Itsuki also seemed to be surprised.

"Hey"

"What are you doing here?" Ren asked.

"I wanted to see the dragon hourglass" Yuuki lied. It was a quick, simple yet believable lie for someone not used to detecting lies.

"I see, come with us. We're going to check the hourglass too." Itsuki replied.

"Thanks"

'_Success! Lie not noticed!'_

He followed the gamer trio quietly until they're finally came face to face with the hourglass.

'_So this is the countdown timer of calamity huh.'_

The golden hourglass is 7 meters tall, with ornate dragon themed design. The sand inside looks like powdered ruby and overall, the entire thing gives off a divine aura.

"Greetings, Legendary heroes. How can this one be of use to our Lordship?" The nun standing near the hourglass greeted us, bowing deeply as she did.

'_I didn't even notice her there!'_ Yuuki thought in barely concealed surprise.

Itsuki stepped forward and politely asked. "Can you please give us all a bag of the sand from the hourglass? We need it for unlocking the power of the Legendary Weapons."

'_Oh? This is new. Now that I remember, the weapons absorb a materials to unlock new forms. Is this something from the games they played?'_

"Of course, please wait for a moment" The nun replied, bowing deeply again and then she suddenly ran off. A few moments later, she's back with four bags of magic sand which she gave to us as if giving an offering.

""Thank you very much"" We said in unison. The nun seems to be overflowing with happiness.

'_What a weird nun.'_ Was the unanimous thought among the four heroes.

'_Wait. These three are the wielders of their object of faith so maybe the wielders are their equivalent of saints? That might be the answer.' _

'_Now, let's try putting some of this in the 'wand'…'_

Yuuki was mesmerized watching the fistful of sand disappearing into motes of purple light as it touches the jewel of the scepter

**Requirements Met: [ Dragon's Era Scepter ( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base stat: [ Matk +5 ]**

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery :[ 0% ]**

**Equip bonus: [ Transport Wand ] **

**[ Transport Wand ] : Teleport yourself and up to 3 ( + 1 Every 20 levels) to a set location (Max: 3)**

**Cooldown: 1 hour. **

"Damn" Yuuki's eyes almost popped out of their socket. Getting teleportation this early? The other three must have known about this if their first priority is to get the sand of the hourglass!

"Surprised?" Motoyasu-san asked with a grin plastered on his face.

"Yeah. I did not expect this at all." Yuuki replied.

"In Emerald online, this was one of the Earliest quests you know?" Motoyasu said, confirming Yuuki's earlier thoughts

"Hey, wanna go with us? I don't know about the others but I'm going to check the shops around here." Motoyasu-san offered.

'_What a nice offer from the playboy of the group!'_

"Sure" Yuuki replied, putting the bag of sand in his inventory, watching it disappear in a purple flash. " But I'll have to try something first."

"Oh. So you know about the inventory huh." Itsuki asked. "I assumed you don't know about it, as you didn't seem to play any games similar to this world. "

"I finished reading the entire help menu earlier, right before we were called by the king." Yuuki replied. "I figured I should read everything in the help menu to learn how the Legendary Weapons work. It also served to pass time waiting for the king's call"

"I see. So what are you going to try?" Itsuki asked curiously.

"This is a church right? That means there's holy water in here." Yuuki answered. "I want to see if holy water unlocks something for the Legendary Weapons."

"I see. That's a good idea." Ren, who was silent until now, suddenly spoke. "Can you also give us all a bottle of the most potent holy water?" He asked to the nun.

"Certinly, Hero-sama" The nun replied before bowing deeply once more and running away to fetch the items.

"She's certainly …. Helpful?" Yuuki commented unsurely. The trio can only nod in response. The nun returned moments later with four bottles of holy water, which she gave to them.

"Is there anything else you need, hero-sama?" The nun asked.

"How much is this?" Yuuki asked, taking the bag of coins from his inventory.

"There's no need for the heroes to pay for this" The nun answered, surprising Yuuki.

"Thanks" Yuuki replied. He checked the bottle and placed it in his inventory. He may not have the appraisal skill but the inventory reveals all data regarding the items inside it. The exceptions are 'unidentified' items. This method should work as a watered down version of the Appraisal skill.

**Curse dispelling holy water (pure)**

**Quality: Excellent **

After confirming the quality of the item with the inventory's help, Yuuki took out the bottle of holy water again and poured a small amount of it on the jewel of the legendary weapon, with the trio doing the same.

**Requirements met: [ Holy Staff ( 0/30 UC ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ Matk+10 ] [ Light Affinity +10 ] [ +10% Damage to Dark attribute units ] [ +10% Damage to Undead units ]**

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Holy Light ] [+10 Light Affinity]**

**[ Holy Light ] : Deal Light attribute damage to enemies on a specific area. +100% Damage to dark attribute units. +100% Damage to Undead units. **

**Cooldown: 30 seconds.**

"Holy Shit!" Yuuki exclaimed upon seeing the stats of the weapon's new form. _'This is just at uncommon rank? Just how powerful the higher ranked weapons are.!?'_

"Holy shit indeed" Motoyasu agreed.

Itsuki and Ren can only nod in agreement.

Ren's sword took the form of a pristine silver longsword with gold accents. The guard and the sword seemed fused together in the form of a cross and in the middle of it was the blue jewel of the Legendary Sword. It's also giving off a divine aura.

Itsuki's bow took the form of a golden, angel wing themed longbow. The yellow jewel of the Legendary bow remained at the center. The bow also gives off a divine aura.

Motoyasu's spear …. It totally gold. Rather than regal, it looks like a treasure of sorts, something that would not look out of place in a treasury. Yet, despite it's appearance, the spear also emits a divine aura.

Yuuki's wand (Scepter now turned staff) is now a five foot long ornately designed golden staff. The tip has four prongs holding on white glowing crystal. Inside the crystal is the purple jewel of the Legendary wand. Like all weapons of the Holy series, this staff also emits a divine aura.

"Did you guys get a skill?" Yuuki asked. "I got **[Holy Light]**, an Area of Effect skill with anti-dark and Anti-Undead properties."

"I got **[Holy Slash]**. It's a melee single target skill with the same properties as your **[Holy Light]**" Ren answered.

"I got **[Holy Arrow]**" Itsuki answered. "It's a ranged single target skill with the same effect as your skill."

"Well, I got **[Holy Javelin]**" Motoyasu answered. "It's a single target ranged skill with the same effect as your skills"

I guess the holy series all have the same effect." Itsuki spoke.

"It makes sense too. Light beats dark. Holy kills undead." Yuuki added. Elemental advantage/disadvantage is something very common in games. "The shield on the other hand would probably unlock resistances." The trio nodded in agreement.

"Do you have any other ideas?" Ren asked curiously.

"Well, I do have some…."

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

After that conversation, Yuuki ended up with the trio along with their party to one of the many weapon shops around this city. For some reason, along the way, Motoyasu-san kept on trying to persuade Yuuki to call him 'Senpai' and dragged him along to one of the weapon shops around.

Right now, He's with the spear hero in the long weapons section of the shop. Currently, the spear hero is checking and testing **ALL** of the shop's stock of spears.

"I don't see any point in this, Motoyasu-san." Yuuki spoke softly. The owner might hear him and get offended with his words. "We already have the legendary weapons. This would be a waste of money you know?"

"I guess you don't know. Maybe this wasn't in the novel you read?" Motoyasu looked around, checking if the owner is nearby. After confirming the owner's absence, ( the owner's in the storage room, collecting more spears for him) he gestured for Yuuki to come closer. "Watch this." His spear changed form, copying the halberd he held earlier.

"What the .."

"Awesome isn't it?" Motoyasu asked with a grin. "This is the **[Weapon Copy]** function of the legendary weapons. Judging by your expression, I guess you missed it in the help menu."

'_No, I didn't see it in my help menu.'_ Was Yuuki's mental response.

"Don't worry, Motoyasu-senpai will explain it to you now." He began. "**[Weapon Copy]** can be activated by simply touching a weapon of the same type or if the legendary weapon makes contact with the weapon you want to copy. Wanna try it?"

'_Sure, why not? But does this count as stealing? Maybe piracy?' _

**{ [Weapon Copy] Unlocked. }**

**The Legendary Weapon can now copy other weapons of the same type. Making physical contact with the desired weapon is the only condition to activate [Weapon Copy]**

Yuuki raised an eyebrow at the sudden notification. _'It's as Motoyasu-san said. All I need is physical contact. It doesn't matter if it's me or the legendary weapon._' He thought, but a sudden realization struck him. _' This wasn't in my help menu earlier nor was this in the novel. Does this mean there's more enhancement methods to unlock? I should experiment on this later.'_

Putting aside his thoughts, he picked a black staff with a red orb at the tip. As expected a pop-up appeared.

**{ Activate [Weapon Copy]? }**

**{ YES / NO }**

Selecting yes, another pop up appeared and his scepter transformed into same black staff he picked earlier.

**[Weapon Copy] Completed **

**[Red Jewel Staff ( 0/30 C ) ] Copied**

**Base Stat: [ Matk +5 ] [ Fire Affinity +5 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip bonus: [ Fireball ] [ +5 Fire Affinity ]**

**[ Fireball ] : Deal Fire attribute damage to a single unit with 20% chance of applying [Burn] status to the target.**

**Cooldown: 3 seconds.**

"So, what do you think now Yuuki? Still think this is useless?" Motoyasu asked.

"Motoyasu-senpai"

"Yes, Kohai-kun?"

"I'm going to copy everything I can in this shop."

"That's the spirit!"

_One piracy festival later… _

Yuuki abused the **[Weapon Copy]** skill like the trio, raiding many shops across the capital along with them. Copying around 50 different forms for his weapon. Somewhere along the copy craze, he finally bought a beginner adventurer armor set.

During the copy craze, he actually manage to figure out what the 'wand' really meant to his Legendary Weapon. All mage type weapons (Mostly just Wands, Scepters, Staffs ) counted as 'Wand' for the Legendary weapon.

Basically, anything that could be used as a medium for casting magic in this world is classified as a 'Wand' by the Legendary weapon.

Yuuki theorizes that wands just happened to be the most common magical medium back when the Legendary Heroes first appeared and the title Hero of the Wand must have stuck since then.

Right now, Yuuki found himself with Ren in one of the Potion Shops of Melcromarc. Ren brought him here so Yuuki can test his ideas once more.

"I want to try if the potions could unlock something." Ren spoke "That was what you said earlier. You can buy potions here."

Yuuki simply nodded in response and turned his attention to the shopkeeper. "Show me every kind of potion you have here."

"Sure, Just wait for a moment." From the shelf behind him, the shopkeeper took a bottle of Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Purple Potions. "The red potion here is a Health potion. The price for this is 10 copper coins."

"Give me ten of that." Yuuki asked, placing a silver coin on the desk.

"Certainly" The shopkeeper took the silver coin and gave him nine more bottles which he placed it on the desk.

**Health Potion (S)**

**Quality: Normal**

Yuuki placed nine of them in his inventory and poured the last one on the legendary weapon's jewel.

**Requirements met: [Petit Potion Wand ( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base Stat: [ Potion Effect+10% ] [ HP Recovery up (Small) ]**

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip bonus: [ Potion Enhancement ] [ HP +10 ]**

**[ Potion Enhancement ] : Raises potion effectiveness.**

**Cooldown: 5 seconds**

"What did you get?" Ren asked curiously.

"A wand with potion effect up skill. No offensive properties as expected." Yuuki replied. "I guess the forms unlocked by potions all have rate ups for recovery and effect ups for potions"

"Potion effect up huh." Ren muttered before buying health potions and pouring one on his sword's jewel, basically starting his own tests.

'_I see, so I'm your guinea pig huh.' _Yuuki thought, simply amused before turning to the shopkeeper. "I assume this one is a Mana potion, Am I right?" he asked, picking up the blue potion.

"Yes, Hero-sama. As the ingredients for these are rare, the price for this is 50 copper coins." The shopkeeper answered.

"Give me ten of this." Yuuki asked, placing five silver coins on the desk.

"Of course, Hero-sama." With the payment done, the shopkeeper placed the items on the desk. Yuuki picked one and placed the rest in the inventory while pouring the mana potion on his weapon.

**Mana Potion (S)**

**Quality: Normal**

**Requirements met: [Petit Mana Wand ( 0/30 C )] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Potion Effect+10% ] [ MP Recovery up (Small) ]**

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ MP Recovery up (Small) ] [ MP +10 ] **

_'Nice. Mages are mana hogs so any ups to total MP or recovery rate is always a plus.' _Yuuki thought, satisfied with the result. "What's these?" He asked, picking the yellow, green and purple potions.

"The yellow potion is a Stamina recovery potion, like the mana potion, the ingredients for these are also rare so they cost 50 copper coins. The green one is a Antidote which costs 20 copper coins and the purple potion Herbicide, typically used to kill weeds and the like, but they also work on plant based monsters. They cost 20 cooper coins each." shopkeeper explained. "I would also sell you some potions for paralysis, but sadly, we're out of those for now."

"I want ten each of those." Nine sliver coins was placed on the desk by Yuuki.

"Right away!" The shopkeeper cheerfully replied. "Here's your order, Hero-sama"

Once more, Yuuki placed 27 of the potions in the inventory and poured one of each type on his weapon.

**Stamina Potion (S)**

**Quality: Normal**

**Antidote Potion (S)**

**Quality: Normal**

**Herbicide Potion (S)**

**Quality: Normal**

**Requirements met: [Petit Stamina Wand ( 0/30 C )] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Potion Effect +10% ] [ SP Recovery up (Small) ]**

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ SP Recovery up (Small) ] [ SP +10 ]**

**Requirements met: [Petit Poison Wand ( 0/30 C )] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Potion Effect +10% ] [ Poison Resistance (Small) ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Poison Resistance (Small) ]**

**Requirements met: [ Plant Killing Wand ( 0/30 C )] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ +10% Damage to Plant Units ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Matk +10 ]**

Satisfied with the results, Yuuki turned to Ren and said goodbye and goodluck before leaving.

His destination? The fields.

It's time to Farm.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

**{{ End }}**

**AN: I actually scrapped this chapter twice. I didn't feel satisfied with it at first so I ended up working with this far longer than intended. I was planning on updating this last week (10/15) but ended up updating it now, 2 weeks from when I published this. **

**Now about my interpretation of the characters,**

**Motoyasu seems like the type to show off what he new about games to newbies. I feel like if he and naofumi didn't end up in bad terms, he'll gladly spill everything to him. **

**Ren seemed like the pragmatic type, despite the chuuniness (the black swordsman RP) **

**Itsuki….. is a child. Plain and simple. Polite he may be but he's prone to acts of childishness when things don't go his way. (Maybe even when things **_**does**_** go his way)**

**Yuuki simply has no ill feelings on the summoning. Its like he found himself in a new, unfamiliar place. Taking in the sights and simply enjoying himself while he tries to find his way back. **

**He's wary of the king because of the rumors and what it means. He's also scared of what the lack of the shield and the wand in the church. **

**Now regarding the heroes…**

**Right now, Yuuki has the biggest advantage among them. Having read the **_**story of the four cardinal heroes,**_** (Basically a shield hero knock-off with lots of differences) he already knew of the basic functions but has unreliable knowledge about the future and also studying programming, he has the least trouble unlocking stuff here. **

**Remember, the key to unlocking stuff here is belief. **

**Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu will have trouble unlocking stuff here because they believe they're in the game they played. Which comes with it's own set of functions. **

**Naofumi (in the later chapters) refuses to believe this is a game. Despite acknowledging the game properties. **

**Yuuki is a balance of both, believing this to be a world that runs on RPG mechanics, accepting both the 'Game' and 'Reality'. **

**I'll try to update this weekly. **

**Thanks for reading~**


	3. Chapter 3: Accusations and Birds?

**AN: I got distracted. A lot. **

**Clearly, I can't handle the weekly update so I'm going to switch to every two weeks. **

**Disclaimer: RotSH is not mine.**

* * *

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

**{{ Story Start }}**

* * *

Yuuki stopped by the gate leading out to the fields. He was just about to go when he realized something.

He doesn't know how to use the wand.

He wasn't about to use it as a glorified baseball bat.

Luckily, it seemed that the legendary wand wants to be helpful because a pop-up appeared.

**{{ Tip }}**

**Please check the Help Menu for Basic Attack Settings**

"Basic Attack Settings?" Yuuki muttered, looking at his legendary weapon. Following the tip, he opened the Help Menu for the said function.

**{{ Basic Attack Settings }}**

**The Hero can pick one of the eight attributes to set as the default basic attack attribute. If the Hero wills The Legendary Weapon to attack, the Targeting system will appear. The firing mechanism can be Vocal or mental. If the Hero chose to use the mental command, the Hero can use a trigger word or simply will it, with intention to attack.**

**The Hero can also choose to simply hit the enemies physically.**

'_Nope'_

Surrounding the purple jewel are eight symbols, each representing the eight affinities. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Ice, Light and Dark. Picking one would move the symbol into the jewel.

Yuuki picked Fire first, the symbol moving to the center of the jewel.

He went on the fields and as soon as he saw what looks like a balloon with a face straight out of a jack o lantern, he pointed the wand at it with the intention of murdering it. Just like the instructions said, the targeting system appeared, locking on the balloon. _'Fire'_

A fist sized fireball shot out of the wand and the balloon instantly popped as soon as it hits.

**[ +33 Exp ]**

Yuuki stared intently at the scorched remains then at the wand and grinned.

"I'm definitely going to enjoy this"

* * *

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

* * *

The Guards stationed at the gate shivered, hearing mad laughing followed by multiple explosions.

Just what on earth is happening out there!?

* * *

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

* * *

**Requirements met: [ Orange Balloon Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Atk +2 ] [ Def +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Atk +2 ] [ Def +2 ]**

**Requirements met: [ Yellow Balloon Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Atk +2 ] [ Def +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Atk +2 ] [ Def +2 ]**

**Requirements met: [ Red Balloon Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Atk +4 ] [ Def +4 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Atk +4 ] [ Def +4 ]**

_'How disappointing' _Yuuki thought. _'The Def points are good but the Atk… I'm not going to attack physically. I'm a fucking Mage! *Sigh* the balloon series sucks'_

'_Now then, to test these mushroom monster corpses'_ He thought, feeding the mushroom monsters (Roux Mush) to the wand.

**Requirements met: [ White Mush Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ MAtk +2 ] [ MDef +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**UpEquip Bonus: [ Plant Appraisal ]**

**[ Plant Appraisal ]: Reveals Information for plants.**

**Requirements met: [ Green Mush Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ MAtk +2 ] [ MDef +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Apprentice Compounding ]**

**[ Apprentice Compounding ]: Allows the production of potions of [ Poor ] and [ Normal ] quality.**

**Requirements met: [ Blue Mush Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ MAtk +2 ] [ MDef +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Simple Compounding Recipes I ]**

**[ Simple Compounding Recipes ]: Unlocks recipes for [ Poor ] quality Potions.**

'_Not bad. Crafting skills can be handy at times. Crafting my own potions saves me money too.'_ Yuuki thought. _'Now, to test what these rotten eggs _(Eggy) _will unlock for me' _Yuuki fed the eggshells of the egg monsters to his wand. He would've fed the yolk but he accidentally cooked it to crisp with his Fire attribute basic attacks and by Testing his **[ Fireball ]** skill on those.

**Requirements met: [ Egg Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ MAtk +2 ] [ MDef +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Cooking +1 ]**

**[ Cooking ]: Allows the production of [ Poor ] and [ Normal ] Quality Food.**

**Requirements met: [ Blue Egg Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ MAtk +2 ] [ MDef +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Appraisal ]**

**[ Appraisal ]: Reveals all information of an item**

**Requirements met: [ Sky Egg Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ MAtk +4 ] [ MDef +4 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Beginner Cooking Recipes ]**

**[ Beginner Cooking Recipes ]: Unlocks Recipes for [ Poor ] and [ Normal ] quality food.**

'_Eggs unlocks Cooking skills and recipes? Makes sense I guess. Cooking eggs properly is the baby steps of cooking…Still, getting the __**[Appraisal] **__from rotten eggs?' _Yuuki thought incredulously. Checking his slightly burned, badly dismantled rabbit, ( Pill Rabbit ) he separated the skin, bones, and meat. Dismantling the love child of a ball and a rabbit had been a hard and messy business.

Figuring he had no use for the bones and doubting he could sell the badly dismantled hide, Yuuki decided to feed all of it to his wand, only adding a few chunks of meat.

**Requirements met: [ Pill Rabbit Leather Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Agi +1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 34% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Agility +1 ]**

**Requirements met: [ Pill Rabbit Meat Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Str +1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Dismantling +1 ] [ Cooking +1 ]**

**Requirements met: [ Pill Rabbit Bone Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Agi +2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 34% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Agility +2 ]**

Yuuki's eyebrow rose upon seeing the Pill rabbit leather and bone wands. The mastery was filled. _'But how?'_ He thought. All of the forms he unlocked all had the mastery at 0% so what caused the mastery be filled? _ 'Wait, I fed all of the bones and skin I had to my wand. Is that it?'_

Yuuki fed one whole rabbit's worth of meat to his wand to test his theory.

**Requirements met: [ Pill Rabbit Meat Wand (0/30 C ) ] Unlocked**

**Base stat: [ Str +1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 2% ]**

**Equip Bonus: [ Dismantling +1 ] [ Cooking +1 ]**

"….The hunt begins"

* * *

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

* * *

Night eventually came.

As he was returning from a successful hunt, actually mastering the Balloon and Eggy series, Yuuki felt tired but satisfied. He would have camped outside as he planned for some late night and early morning monster hunting but the squishiness of his mage build made that impractical and lethal for him. Hampered by fatigue, he could be attacked by these comical monsters and actually die from it.

Stupid spawns of balls and whatnot.

Finding an inn and paying the bill, Yuuki took his dinner to his room and sorted his stuff while eating.

First, he reached level 13. If he was playing this as a game, he could probably reach level 18-20 + in the 6 hours he had been farming, going even further for stronger monsters.

He ended up testing everything he can in an attempt to unlock more functions of the legendary weapon.

He only unlocked one

The Monster Book.

Unlocked by killing all of the enemy types in one area, The monster books is basically a poke'dex for this world, it records all information about monsters he fought. Where to find them, what they drop, how hard they are to find, average levels, their traits and elemental attributes, all of it recorded in it.

It's not much, but it's something. It also confirmed his theory. There's more functions to be unlocked.

As for the status of Yuuki's legendary weapon, he had unlocked, through **[ Weapon Copy ] **and feeding materials to it, around 70 weapon forms, 6 of which are mastered.

Mastering weapon forms had been one of his main priorities, as with mastery comes equip bonuses which will become permanent. Small they may be but they stack, and will definitely end up significantly boosting his stats if he kept on diligently mastering his weapon forms.

It also had the benefit of enabling the equip bonus skills for him, even though he wasn't using the form needed.

Next, his funds. Yuuki spent 15 silver coins for the potion, 50 silver coins for the beginner adventure armor set and 1 Silver coin for the lodging and dinner, which leaves him with 734 silver coins.

Next on the list is his skills. Mastering the eggy series unlocked **[ Cooking ] **and **[ Appraisal ] **skills. Sadly, mastering the weapons with offensive skills might take more time. Yuuki only unlocked **[ Fireball ] **and was nowhere near 10% for **[ Holy Light ]**.

Tomorrow's target would be mastery of the other forms gained from nearby monsters and searching for party members, if they passed his standards.

Apparently for the people here, partying with a hero raises the exp up to 10x, so them killing those balloons he blasted with skills would only get them 1-3 exp. Joining a hero raises that to 10-30 exp per balloon _plus _last hit bonus exp.

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but assuming it is, that presents a motivation for people to take advantage of us. Except that being heroes, we're expected to fight the waves. Succeeding means glory and fortune.

This also means people are going to try and take advantage of heroes regardless of his earlier concerns.

'_We are totally live bait for those opportunists.'_

Yuuki wryly smiled. It seems even on this world, he's still live bait for opportunistic leeches.

_'I really should sleep now so I can farm early'_

With that last thought, Yuuki slept, eager to start farming early.

* * *

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

* * *

The knocking on his door woke him up. He left the bed and opened the door quite harshly, surprising the employee outside.

"What is it?" Yuuki asked through the door, keeping his annoyance from showing on his face.

"There's a knight waiting for you downstairs, hero-sama. He's here to deliver a message." The employee replied.

Her answer practically slapped him awake.

First, the king is _still_ keeping an eye on them. That means the king's spies are still following us. That must be the reason the knight found him. They knew where all heroes are at all times. Another possibility is through the rumor mill. A hero staying in a particular establishment will probably draw attention to it.

There are more possibilities but he'd rather assume the worst for now.

"Fine. Tell him to give me a few minutes." Yuuki replied. The employee nodded her head and left to inform the knight.

He made his preparations and went downstairs. Upon seeing him, the knight approached him and spoke. "Hero-sama, his highness called for an urgent meeting. All heroes are required to attend."

"What for?"

"I don't know about the details hero-sama, but there are rumors about the shield hero being arrested for sexually assaulting his only party member."

"That's just stupid." Yuuki deadpanned. "The shield hero has no offensive capabilities. Tell me, how can he force himself on his only party member, who's higher leveled and more experienced than him?" Yuuki asked the dumbfounded knight.

"I….Don't know, hero-sama." The knight replied. It was the answer Yuuki expected to hear. There is simply no way _the__** Shield**__ Hero_ could force himself on his sole party member. His life practically depended on her.

It's a bit more believable if the sword, spear, bow heroes or even _him_ that was rumored to do that as we have the actual power to _attempt_ such a thing. Not that Yuuki would.

"Exactly. Pure stupidity is what that meeting is. Now tell the king that the hero of the wand is too busy leveling up in preparation for the incoming wave to attend the meeting." Yuuki replied, and immediately left the gaping knight, who was probably gaping because he dared to call the meeting held by _the king_.

'_Seriously though, who would believe this shit?'_

* * *

_**One farming session later…**_

* * *

'_Oh my god, they actually believed this shit!_'

That was all Yuuki could think when he ran into the trio while looking for a place to eat.

Motoyasu bombarded him with questions from 'Why didn't you attend the trial'? to 'Did you know the news? Naofumi raped his party member!' That one sentence actually surprised Yuuki.

Yuuki promptly smacked him with his scepter in response.

"Stop bombarding me with questions." Yuuki deadpanned. But internally…..

_'Holy Shit! It actually damaged him.!'_ That simple smack took 2-3% of Motoyasu's HP, to Yuuki's surprise. '_Just how squishy are you?'_

"So Yuuki-san, you didn't attend the meeting because?" Itsuki asked.

"I was too busy." Yuuki replied. "We're on very limited time so I don't have time to spare for things like this farce of a trial." The trio frowned at his response.

"Yuuki. Do you know what Naofumi had done? He-"

"Allegedly raped his sole party member." Yuuki interrupted, silencing The trio, especially Itsuki, who asked the question. "It's all I can hear form the people since I returned."

"If you know then wh-" Itsuki spoke but was interrupted once more.

"Until I see the indisputable proof of the crime, I will stay neutral about this.

"Yuuki. Myne _was crying_ what-" Motoyasu spoke but was interrupted.

"It's easy to believe things if you're face to face with a crying woman"

The trio went silent at his words, until Ren spoke.

"Yuuki….. Are you saying this was a set up?" Ren asked. Yuuki nodded in response.

"Possibly. Tell me something. Do you think Naofumi, with his shit attack power, can he force himself on a woman, who not only is higher leveled than which means she's stronger than him but also more experienced than him." Yuuki asked. "Besides, let's say she was raped. Her first move was to run crying to Motoyasu? That's weird to me. As a rape victim, she should be wary or even downright afraid of men at this point."

Ren fell silent, thinking about Yuuki's words.

"Yuuki… don't tell me you're actually siding with Naofumi on this." Motoyasu asked.

"No, I just want to be sure before I judge someone with that kind of accusation." Yuuki replied. "I'll stay neutral in this."

"I see. That's your opinion." Itsuki spoke. "It's a bit disappointing but understandable."

"What's disappointing about it?" Yuuki asked.

"The way you suspect the victim of actually being the criminal." Itsuki replied.

Yuuki just shrugged in response. "You do realize the justice system is also like this? They do check both sides like this to see who really is at fault….. Unless it's different in your world. "

"I know." Itsuki simply replied, ending the conversation.

* * *

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

* * *

Yuuki stumbled across a suspicious looking tent. A tent as huge as those used in circus but lacked the cheerfulness of it.

Earlier he left the trio, possibly straining relationships between them. Yuuki personally think Ren would stay neutral if it comes to it.

He was simply looking for other shops since his armor is now too weak for someone of his level when he came across the strange tent with a sign saying 'We sell monsters' at the door.

_'Monsters? As in pets?_' Yuuki's thoughts briefly went towards RPG games that utilize the pet system. _'Yeah. I should check that. Pets could be my temporary substitute for party members'_

He Entered the tent and was mildly surprised. Stacks of crates all around him used as makeshift walls forming a room, and from what he can see from the gaps, are products of various kinds. Right in front of him is a small table and on it are eggs of similar appearance.

For some reason, he can hear growls of what he assumed as monsters but then again, this place is a monster shop. He was simply surprised the products are placed near monsters, caged or not.

"Hello, adventurer-san, what can I do for you." A short, round man wearing what he could only describe as a circus showman's attire, basically a tuxedo, a cane and a monocle and a top hat. _'Now that I think about it, he looks like a magician'_

"I'm not an adventurer, I'm-"

"The hero of the wand, yes?" Yuuki was surprised, but then again, everyone in this city seems to know all heroes appearances.

"Yes, but what I mean to say is I'm not part of the adventurer's guild." Yuuki replied. He figured from the name of the armor he bought and from talking with the owners that adventurer ( as a job ) do exist. This means there should be a guild that manages them and the missions they take. Or so Yuuki assumed.

Yuuki still hasn't decided whether to join the guild or not since being an adventurer is no different from being a mercenary. You take a request from someone, do the job and get paid.

"Anyways, your sign outside says you sell monsters so I'll go straight to the point. For a beginner like me, what's the recommended monster to raise?" Yuuki asked.

"There's a lot I can recommend but for a beginner like you, Filorials would be the best choice you have."

"Filorial?"

"Yes. Have you seen the huge birds pulling carts in the city?" Yuuki nodded. Those birds reminded him of the ostrich form his world. "Filorials are very easy to raise. Food is a minor concern since when they grow enough to start eating solid food, they eat anything. From fruits to monsters. They're also useful for travels. As for battle prowess…. Their natural enemies are dragons."

'_Holy shit'_

A type of bird whose natural enemies are dragons…. That would only grow stronger if leveled.

"How much for one?"

"200 Silvers, Hero-sama."

"I'll buy one."

"Would you prefer an egg or an adult one? Either way, the price is still at 200 silvers."

"If the price is the same, why would anyone want an egg?" Yuuki asked.

"Filorials imprint themselves to the first person they see when they hatch. While the monster slavery seals ensure their obedience, Imprinting on someone makes sure that the filorial is loyal and willing to fight for you. It's very common for adventurers and mercenaries to raise one from scratch if they do plan to bring it for battles." The round merchant answered.

"I see." _'So basically like a chick… that will become a chicken that can potentially fight dragons'_ Yuuki thought. He can't help but imagine a giant ostrich kicking the shit out of a dragon. "So, how strong they could be?"

"There was a legend about the Filorial Queens. Apparently, those kinds of filorials are the leaders of the flock. They share the position at the top of the food chain in the wild with dragons. That would be the best example if the legends are to be believed."

Under normal circumstances, Yuuki wouldn't believe the words of the round merchant. However, he realized that he himself, as the hero of the wand, is something ripped straight out of the legends so there might be some truth to the merchant's words. That and 200 silvers can be easily earned back. He simply had to move to a place with higher level monsters. Higher level monsters = better drops & easy money.

"Ok. I'll buy one. 200 silver coins right?" Yuuki simply couldn't resist the potential of filorials, especially considering the lack of party member he has to solve.

Filorials.

Just how strong these birds are?

* * *

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

**{{ End }}**

* * *

**AN: as I've said earlier, since I couldn't keep up the weekly update due to ... **_**Problems, **_**I'll have to switch to 2 week intervals.**

**I also apologize to a certain reader. I certainly didn't keep my words.**

**On a side note, I'm want to take down my corrupted phoenix story yet at the same time, I don't want to. Reading it again now (I wrote it five years ago) I can't help but cringe. It's like I saw all of my inner chuuni in story form.**

**Thanks for reading~**


	4. Chapter 4: Problems

**AN: Sorry for taking too long to update this. Life got me. **

**Disclaimer: RotSH is not mine. **

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

**{{ Story Start }}**

"The monsters here are no good huh."

"Guee~"

Yuuki let his thoughts wander towards the events of these past few days while he waits for Sakura to finish her meal, a freshly killed Lv.15 Giant Usapill

Right after buying the egg, Yuuki went right back to his usual routine of farming and experimenting in the mornings, resting and going over the results, and checking his inventory before he sleeps.

Of course, Yuuki made sure to take all of the ink used for the monster tamer seal. Since it has his blood in it, he would rather not think about what the guy who could cast subjugation seals would do to it.

Luckily the ink unlocked something good for him.

**Requirements met: [ Beast Tamer's Scepter I**

**( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ 1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Monster Growth UP (Small) ]**

**[Monster Growth** **UP (Small) ]** – Increases a Monster Party Member's EXP Gain (20)

One day later, the egg hatched.

A light pink Filorial chick came out, chirped happily at him, before running straight to the top of his head, treating it like some sort of nest. He didn't really mind.

His party registered her as a Lv.1 Filorial (Female) so that solved the problem of identifying the gender and now, he can decide for a proper name. As for the name….

He named her Sakura.

Because her light pink feathers reminded him of Sakura petals, he named her Sakura.

Then, he fed the eggshells to his wand as an experiment.

**Requirements met: [ Beast Tamer's Scepter II**

**( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ 1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Monster Status UP (Small) ]**

**[ Monster Status UP (Small) ] **– Increases the stat gain of a Monster Party Member (20%)

Three days later and Sakura is already around 3 feet tall, which is totally absurd in Yuuki's opinion. But, new problems also rose from it.

First: Sakura is such a big damned eater. Yuuki can already imagine his funds quite literally being eaten by Sakura. Thankfully, his money was saved by the stock of monster meat inside his inventory. At the very least, for now, he won't be spending anything on her food expenses. That and her rapid growth causes her to shed quite a lot of her feathers, which he all fed to the wand. It also unlocked another tier of the **[Beast Tamer]** Series.

**Requirements met: [ Beast Tamer's Scepter III**

**( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ 1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Monster Growth UP (Medium) ]**

**[Monster Growth** **UP (Medium) ]** – Increases a Monster Party Member's EXP Gain (40%)

Still, despite her size, Sakura's incredibly fast and strong, probably due to the **[Beast Tamer] **series. At level 10, she's clearing the area of monsters faster than Yuuki, who is a Ranged AoE magician with high Magic Attack stat.

A quick check at her stats revealed that Sakura's highest stat is agility, which is his lowest stat. What that meant is her speed is absurd and she's amazing in hit and run tactics.

Overall, Sakura covered his melee and speed disadvantages.

And these birds are supposed to pull carts like horses?

The Shopkeeper wasn't kidding when he said these birds are strong. Granted, the area they are in only has low level monsters so Yuuki has yet to see how she fares with something on her level.

Sakura is definitely more powerful than normal Filorials thanks to the **[ Beast Tamer's Scepter ]**

Second: Working alone is _way_ different than working with another person, or in his case, a Bird. He may have theoretical experience on this due to all the games he played but that is different to a live battle scenario. Yuuki had to take friendly fire into account, watching where and when Sakura will attack before he can attack or waiting for Sakura to back off a bit from a monster before firing a skill at the enemy.

Friendly fire on itself is a unique problem simply because Yuuki doesn't know if his attacks would just pass through his allies like some games does ( a very valid concern since this world runs partly on video game logic ) or actually harm them so Yuuki simply assumed the latter just to be on the safe side.

Luckily for him, the solution for this is simple: get used to it.

Third: Yuuki…. Is starting to become a weapon of mass destruction.

On these last three days, Yuuki accidentally discovered, out of boredom, that contrary to his assumptions that he could only feed anything with value to his wand, he could also feed mundane and things with no value to his wand. Like a simple rock.

He was actually resting at the time, waiting for his MP to recover on it's own rather than use a potion, which he decided he was going to use only in certain situations, when he got bored, picked a rock and out of curiosity, fed it to the wand.

He really didn't expect the result.

**Requirements met: [ Rock Wand ( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ Matk 1 ] [ Earth Affinity 2 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Pebble Strike ] [2 Earth Affinity]**

The rock wand as the name implies, looks like a wand carved from a rock, and totally looked like it would break if he ever dropped it. And with that discovery, Yuuki went on and tried different things to see what forms he would unlock.

**Requirements met: [ Leaf Wand ( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ Matk 1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Collection skill 1 ] [ Plant Quality Up (Small) ]**

The leaf wand is a simple green wand with a leaf design on the tip. On the middle of the leaf is the purple jewel of the wand.

**Requirements met: [ Lumberjack Scepter ( 0/30 C ) ] noUnlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ Atk 1 ] **

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Woodcutting 1 ] **

This particular form baffled Yuuki. It looks like a normal scepter carved out of wood…. But then, someone decided to have fun and attach the head of an axe on it, making it an axe/scepter hybrid.

Yuuki made a note for the future: get the alchemy/transmutation skill or use any crafting skill and try and make Hybrid weapons, then use weapon copy on it.

There are many other forms Yuuki unlocked using mundane stuff, bringing all his weapon forms up to around 110, which also unlocked a skill

The **[ One Hundred Wands ] **skill

The skill allows Yuuki to create one hundred ethereal copies of whatever form his weapon currently is at the time of catsing. Then he can choose one skill that all those wands will fire at Yuuki's will…..

All. At. Once. At the cost of a single use of that one single spell.

For example, casting **[ One Hundred Wands ] **will cost him some SP for the activation and casting **[ Holy Light ]** with it will reduce his SP with the appropriate amount for a single use …. Except the effect of **[ One Hundred Wands ]** will make that one **[ Holy Light **] into _one hundred_,carpet bombing the entire field.

All of these AoE skills are giving him trouble fighting in a party. And this is just with only Sakura. Majority of his skills are AoE. He may have defensive, supportive and crafting skills but AoE offensive skills outnumber them by a lot.

This made it clear to Yuuki that his role is mainly Crowd Control/ Burst Damage Type of Mage.

Yuuki's definitely looking forward to using **[ One Hundred Wands ]** on the oncoming wave.

And all of that is just the start.

Which brings him to the fourth problem he faced.

What is the enhancement method of the wand?

It was one of the most important questions he had since he found the main difference in the novel and here. ( Mainly the Wand itself )

Each legendary weapon has it's own enhancement method and thanks to the novel, which reminds him of the fact that there's a huge difference here and _The Story of the Four Cardinal Heroes_ which means his knowledge about the events may or may not be mostly worthless.

And he's getting distracted again.

The fact that he doesn't know the Legendary Wand's own upgrading system bothered him so he searched the entire help menu once more, this time, making sure to not miss anything.

And he found what he wanted.

It was a status modifier. A very straightforward method for something related to Magic.

At every level, Yuuki gets 5 points to upgrade one of his basic stats ( Attack, Magic attack, Defense, Magic defense, Strength, Agility ) or other stats ( Max HP/MP/SP, HP/MP/SP recovery rate, CD reduction, SP/MP cost reduction, Magic penetration etc. ) Or raise his elemental affinities.

At his current level of 21, that was 105 points.

Yuuki decided to put 20 pts in the slot for Cooldown reduction, reducing it by 1% per point, ( 20% in total ) which told him that the rise in stat goes by percentage. 20 pts agility since that's his lowest stat and in in hopes of helping him dodge attacks, ( 20% AGI ) another 20 in Max HP (20% Max HP) to reduce his squishiness and yet another 20 for Max SP and _yet another _20 for SP recovery. (20% Max SP regen )

At Lv. 100, that would be 500 pts. Which would, theoretically, if he were to put all of it in magic attack, his damage output will rise by _500%_

Considering the fact that he has _five _enhancement methods on him, the potential scares and assures him at the same time. Scared because the saying _'with great power comes great responsibility' _now applies to him, which brings the question, will his own power corrupt him or not?

Power corrupts. That is a well known phrase for a reason.

Absolute power Absolutely corrupts.

At the same time, he was assured by his absurd rise in power because that means he will survive this whole wave mess. Yuuki assumes that this absurd growth in power is why the Legendary Heroes are considered as gods.

(What he is worried about is the fact that certain people who are easily deceived also have access to this absurd growth, something Yuuki will never say out loud…. ..for now)

"Guee~"

Sakura tugged at his sleeve, snapping Yuuki out of his thoughts. "Oh, you're done huh." He patted her head absentmindedly, something Sakura seemed to like.

"Guee~~~"

Today is the fourth day since Sakura hatched. Now, she's 4 feet in height and looks like a pink ostrich. Yuuki had been holding back on using his skills so that Sakura could level up faster, taking the kill bonus with her. Something she can't do if Yuuki uses his any of his offensive skills, he'll Instantly kill anything on this field. Now though, even his own basic attacks on his lowest attribute stat can kill anything on this field in s single hit.

Still, the exp was still split between the two of them, which made grinding a even more tedious than usual regardless of how far he went from the capital, mainly due to the low level of monsters around the castle town, which had Yuuki thinking of moving to another area, or better yet, another town.

Yuuki sighed.

_'Destination is another problem. I don't want to accidentally stumble into a higher leveled grinding area.' _It was a very valid and important concern. Different areas tend to have monsters of varying levels. And because Yuuki's knowledge of this world came from a book ( Albeit a game themed one ) rather than a game, he lacks the information regarding the monster levels of these areas, making traveling quite risky for him and Sakura.

_'I have to take that gamble don't I?' _Yuuki sighed. _'I need traveling supplies first, then a map. Maybe a wagon too, if Sakura can handle the weight.' _

And then Yuuki realized something.

He facepalmed.

_'I have this ultra convenient inventory! I don't need the fucking wagon!' _

Not needing the wagon means he can save on money, Food isn't a problem anymore with all the pikyu-pikyu and usapill meats he collected, something that should feed him and Sakura for a week. He also doesn't need any fire starting tools for camping out because of his magic and all that's left for him to worry about is the tent he'll have to use for camping out.

He also had stock of numerous Health and Mana potions along with some low level gear, all from the monster drops. While Yuuki is already familiar with the concept of monster drops, it still baffled and amused him at the same time when he'll get a drop notification of a weapon when it's clear the monsters aren't carrying anything with them.

"Let's go back, Sakura."

"Guee~"

He put aside the thoughts of preparations. For now, Yuuki needs to find a suitable location for them to level up efficiently. The waves won't wait for them to grow stronger.

_'I guess I really have to find the guild now'_

For now, Yuuki would set aside his wariness of authority for information. The king is already keeping an eye on the Legendary Heroes, and if he's right in his speculations, the Three Heroes Church most likely does too, for different reasons. Adding the guild to the list of 'Stalkers' he has won't hurt him….. hopefully.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

Finding the Melcromarc Adventurer's Guild wasn't difficult.

His own beginner adventurer armor set helped him in putting the image of a young aspiring adventurer and for extra measure, he switched to a more mundane looking wand he gained from abusing the weapon copy system, making it easy to hide the short wand.

This made it easy for him to just ask people for directions without the fuss of being instantly recognized as the hero of the wand.

Using the fame of being a Legendary Hero may be the easier way, but the people's awed gazes irks him.

He wasn't a hero. He was just fortunate or unfortunate (He's still not sure) to be summoned as one.

A few minutes later, he's finally at the guild, and after leaving Sakura at the stables (Yuuki: don't worry, she won't eat the horses….probably), he's now trying to fill out the papers.

Emphasis on try.

"….Fuck" was the only thing Yuuki can say right now. _'Of course. Another world, another language. We may be able to speak and understand them through the Legendary Weapon's perks, but reading and writing is not included in the translation perk. What a half assed perk."_

And so, that was how Yuuki ended up not joining the guild.

But…. He got the information he needs.

By taking inspiration from numerous spy fiction, he listened to the adventurers talking with the guild staff, getting the information he needs with a little bit of difficulty.

It is a bit noisy in the guild. That makes things a little bit troublesome for Yuuki.

Now he knew where the most recent locations of those quests are.

Lute village and the mines. Monsters made themselves at home in the mines, preventing the local miners to do their job.

Dragon Hill village and the Dragon's territory. There was something about a dragon subjugation quest…..

Helping a village on the south with their Famine problems. That doesn't look related to monster hunting quests but famine means the monsters there would either leave the area or attack nearby villages or worse, attack the village itself. As for how Yuuki knows this? That kind of behavior is something very common in wild animals and humans do it too to a certain extent.

Basically, no food here? Let's go somewhere else!

And something about a helping a rebellion up north?

The common thing about all of these are the levels of adventurers taking these quests. All are Lv. 20-30, which Yuuki thinks is insane in the case of one quest.

Sending people with that kind of levels in a dragon slaying quest? Granted he doesn't know the difficulty level of it but still…

Stupidity of it all aside, Yuuki now has choices, although not entirely sure of everything. Dragon subjugation is out due to severe lack of information about the dragon's threat level and the rebellion is out simply because Yuuki has no desire to mess with a complicated situation like that. Joining one side might end up with assassins on his back.

It may not be the heroic thing, turning away from conflict, but Yuuki won't risk his chances of survival on a rebellion he has no reason to stop.

That leaves him with the mines of lute and solving the famine in the south.

The problem with the south is that with the famine, monsters might be moving away in search for prey, something that's a big red flag for Yuuki since what he needs is a place for him to level up, but at the same time, if he does solve the famine problem, That's a major boost to his reputation.

The thing is, He's not after Glory, Honor, or anything like that.

Yuuki just wants to survive.

That leaves him with the mine turned monster nest of lute. He doesn't know any specific details like the area's average monster levels, the recommended level requirement or any relevant info but judging by the average level of the adventurer's taking the quest, it must be at least around Lv.20 and Lv.25 At the most, he assumed.

_'Ok. Mines it is. But before that…I need mining tools. Lots of it.' _

Mining tools are a must, as he might end up finding some valuable ore. Plus, absorbing them into his Legendary Weapon will definitely unlock the mining skill and another plus is the small rise in his stats from mastery.

Yuuki left the guild, satisfied with his impromptu spy escapade.

But he was in for a surprise. As he passed by a glass window, he saw his reflection and was baffled at what he saw.

His eyes. They are now purple.

_'What the fuck?!...' _Yuuki blinked once, twice, thrice. Yep. Not seeing things. _'My eyes are blue, not purple, so why the fuck are they Purple!?...this is the wand's fault, isn't it? This is definitely the wand's fault!.'_

He then remembered the eye color of the other heroes. Blue, Yellow, Red and Green. The same color of their jewels. '_Yep. Definitely the wand's fault.'_

Yuuki decided to ignore the changes lest he bring himself a new headache. For now, he has to get Sakura out of the stable before she decides to eat the other horses there.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

After getting Sakura, who was thankfully sleeping instead of trying to eat the horses like he imagined out of the stable, Yuuki went on a shopping spree of epic proportions. All sorts of kitchenware/Cooking tools, Blacksmithing equipment, Mining tools, Camping equipment, sewing equipment, Compounding sets, …

Then fed it all to the legendary wand.

As expected. All of those unlocked all sorts of bizarre weapon forms, like the Ladle wand but one form stood out for him.

**[ Explosive Staff ( 0/30 C ) ] Unlocked. **

**Base Stat: [ Matk 10 ] [ Atk 10]**

**Proficiency: [ 0% ] Mastery: [ 0% ] **

**Equip bonus: [ Explosion ]**

**[ Explosion ] – deal Fire type damage on all enemies on a specified area **

Yuuki's first thoughts upon seeing this form?

Well…..

_Fuhahahahaha! Exploooosion!_

Yuuki can't help but imagine a certain chuuni laughing madly while an explosion goes off behind her.

Back to the main topic, the reason for this shopping spree was to try to unlock more weapon forms with skills related to crafting. So far, yuuki has **[Cooking]**,** [Blacksmith, [Carpentry, [Mining, [Compounding, [Dismantling, [Woodcutting] **and **[Sewing]** skills.

**[Dismantling, [Mining] **and **[Woodcutting] **are all for gathering and potentially raising the quality of raw materials.

**[Cooking]** covers up Yuuki's food expenses while having the **[Blacksmith] **and **[Sewing]** skill means he doesn't need to buy new and better armor or clothes. The **[Compounding] **skill makes it so he doesn't really need to buy potions, he can just make it. **[Carpentry] **is also good but Yuuki doesn't have the knowledge to put it to proper use.

All of these means Yuuki is now self sufficient. Almost. Shelter is the last thing on the list of things he needs and he can't help but think of the RV and if he could make something similar to it. Maybe he can turn a wagon/cart into one?

Yuuki had been saving money just in case he unlock something similar to a Pay to win function or if the skill can be enhanced through buying related items. Case in point, **[Cooking] **enhanced through absorbing kitchenware and unlocking weapon forms with **[Cooking]** skill.

Another thing he need is a party member who can read and write. However, Naofumi's situation brought up a very real risk considering what he knew. Melcromarc's religion, the Three Heroes Faith, hails the Sword, Spear, and Bow heroes as the closest thing to a god while the Shield hero was considered as a demon of sorts. That raises a question, what is their opinion of the Wand Hero? Yuuki can't help but think that this religion is a big part of how and why people believe the so called crime the Shield hero did. Add the fact that people, especially common folk in general think heroes are powerful at the start … yeah. The tales of the power of heroes backfired a lot.

This meant that basically, depending on the views of their faith, the people might avoid or mooch then backstab him.

What he needs is someone incapable of defying him …

Yuuki sighed. That left him with one option.

Slaves.

Yuuki had been aware of slavery in this country. He had seen them in this town alone on so many occasions. The thought of freeing them crossed his mind but decided against it. For now. What he needs is power if he wants people to listen to his demands, reasonable or not.

And so, despite feeling bad about what he is about to do, Yuuki decided to seek the round man of the shady circus tent. He had a feeling that if someone's going to sell slaves here, it's going to be him. That round guy with subjugation magic just seems to be the type for it.

**{{ Hero of the Wand }}**

**{{ End }}**


End file.
